entrance into and abiding in the joy the rest the peace where the whore within which seduced from the life where the power is into some form where the power is not is burnt Learn then and know in thy self that spirit of prophesy which spake in all the Martyrs Hear that come to that keep to that feel the union the fellowship the spreading of that in thee When that bids thee go go when that bids thee come come when that bids thee do this do it But the flesh is grown strong and strongly resisteth this spirit both inwardly and outwardly and will not suffer him to rise up in the heart or to rise up in the Nation but at any time when he stirreth and offers to speak or lead to God there 's a reason rises up in the fleshly wisdom that knocks him down and denies his voice and hearkens to another voice in stead of his Thus they first give way to the fleshly wisdom and suppress the truth in themselves and then they would go forth and suppress it in others and they think them mad and their rage riseth against them where the truth is suffered to grow and mans reason or fleshly wisedom denyed And thus is the Lord of Glory evil intreated and slain at this day by this generation of Christians as he was by the Jewes slain formerly in the Prophets in that his appearance in a fleshly form and in his Apostles and his blood will be required for the earth shall not alwaies drink it up and cover it nor the adulterous woman be alwaies able to wipe her mouth and say she hath done no wickedness Ye have saved alive the unjust and killed the just The murthering nature is alive in you O ye Christians but the holy one is slain and lies buried in your graves and ye have painted your graves and speak good words of him but still keep him down and let another rise up and live in you Ye cry up that appearance of Christ in the flesh and the words he then spake and the words of his Apostles and think that if he had lived in those dayes ye would not have killed either him or his Apostles and yet ye resist and oppose the same life in your selves and in others with such a kind of wisdom in the letter as the Pharisees had O what will ye do the uncircumcised ear is got up in you and ye cannot hear and the uncumcised heart and ye cannot understand but when this is told you ye despise and wonder and go on in the perishing state My bowels my bowels I am pained at my bowels O England England thou that killedst the Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes thou that persecutedst the non-conformists afterwards that thou wouldst not suffer the people of God to meet together to seek him with an honest heart but wouldst confine them to thy gross formal wayes of worship Though the Lord hath appeared and broken the horns of the Oppressors yet the persecuting spirit is not broken in thee but thou still huntest after the precious life of the seed and wouldst not let it spring up in the Nation The spirit of enmity is still up in thee which knows not the Lord of life but by a natural instinct opposeth him and would fain keep up some grave or other it cares not what so it might but thereby keep down the life for thou canst now bear with any form and cherish it and thy onely enmity is against those who are sent by the Lord to gather out of all forms into the life How often would the Lord have gathered thee but thou wouldst not and yet seeks to gather thee but still thou wilt not but as if the former laws made in Queen Maries dayes were not sufficient desirest new laws to ensnare and entangle the innocent What wil become of thee or what wil thou say to the Lord when he ariseth to plead the cause of the innocent for that Spirit which he raised up to witness against the whorish spirit which lies hid in thy forms of worship and religion appears in all thy Laws Councils and waies of Government so far as they formed and so far as they are guided by the wisdom of the flesh is innocent even as that spirit which witnessed formerly against Popety and Episopacy was innocent before the Lord though accused by them as guilty of error in it self and of disturbance to the publique peace as this is now by thee Some Principles guiding out of the Apostacy to the Christian Spirit and Life again 1. THat there is no salvation but by the true knowledg of Christ The Jews had received the ordinances of God and knew of the Messiah to come and believed it and were very zealous in their worship in observation of Circumcision the Passeover New moons and Sabbaths c. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God and yet God complains of them by his Prophet My people perish for lack of knowledg And the state is the same under the Anti-christian Apostacy wherein the whore hath made all nations kindreds tongues and languages drunk with the cup of her fornication the true knowledg and worship hath been lost though the eyes of them that have been in the apostacy and drunk with the cup could not see it no more then the Jews could in their day But to come close to the thing The knowledge of Christ is not litteral traditional or fleshly nor can it be received by the natural understanding but it is spiritual and the understanding must be given by God which receives it He hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true 1 John 5. 20. A man may read Scriptures hear Sermons c. and thereby gather a knowledge into the old understanding but neither this understanding into which the knowledge is gathered nor the knowledge it self which is gathered is spiritual but fleshly and so cannot save He that comes once to receive an understanding from Christ and to have the knowledge of Christ powred forth from Christ into his heart knowes the difference between that and the understanding into which he gathers things The knowledge of Christ after the letter and a faith in him answerable to such knowledge will not save but a man must know him in that spirit life and power wherein he lived if he groundedly hope to be saved by him 2 Cor. 5. 16. 17. 2. That Christ saves by the new covenant Not by any thing got into the minde by the oldness of the letter but by a life begotten which is new There are two covenants made mention of in Scripture one whereof is called the old the other the new The old belonged to the Jewes which is done away with their ceremonies state and polity the new which is better then the former Christ is the mediator of Heb. 8. 6. By mediating between God and the creature or by bringing them together in and according
by this woman and her seed and this hath been the state of the Church for many ages since the dayes of the Apostles she hass been fled and her seed made war against and killed and her heir caught up to God and the Nations which should have been ruled by her heir the whore hass set upon them and the peoples and the multitudes which he should have governed hath been the seat of the Harlot the mother of all abominations and was it not like to be so and how should it be otherwise when the manchild the womans heir hass been caught up to God and he hass been as prevailed against and the remnant of the womans seed made war against and killed and this hath been since the dayes of the Apostles and so all you Churches and sects by what name soever you are known in the World you are the seed of the great whore and she hath brought you forth while the other woman hass lodged in the Wilderness and remains childless if any man have an ear to hear let him hear Now it may be objected to me and thus may it be said by this accompt the Church the Lambs wife hass been prevailed against by the whore because it is said she hath killed the Saints the members of Jesus and of the Church this seems to shew as if the Church of Christ had been prevailed against but Christ sayes the gates of hel shall not prevail against them but she should remain for ever and the gates of hel should not prevail against her and how doth these two things agree it seems doubtful to us may some say Answ To all this I do answer the true Church the spouse of Christ in her self was never prevailed against so as not to be in being or that she was not but in her self hass remained in being and not prevailed against so as not to have a place or being and Christs words are true she hass had a place and being to wit in the desert Wilderness which place was prepared her of God there to be fed for such a time So she hass a place and has a being though in the Wilderness a place desolate and of mourning So she hass not been prevailed against as that she hass not had a being but the Lambs wife the mother of the heir that which is perfectly so which was and is to be joyned to Christ which is of his flesh and bones taken out of him that cannot be prevailed against never was nor never shall be for the divel nor Satan hath nothing in him of whose flesh and bones she is which is taken out of him and it is as possible for to prevail against him as to prevail against her for she is of him as Eve was of Adam if any have an ear to hear they may hear But her off-spring hass been overcome her seed made war against and her heir taken away and caught up from her so she not prevailed against nor overcome though banished into the Wilderness fled thither and there hass she fed and had a place and hass been left childless as I have said So the mother and the Lambs wife hath had a being and in her selfe never prevailed against nor overcome and Christ's words are true yet hath her seed been killed and made war against and overcome as John said and both these are true and this is my answer and if any have an ear to hear they may hear though a parable to the world yet plain to the seed which now God hath raised and is raising for the woman again is returning and her seed again is springing and she is becoming as fruitful as ever and her glory shal be as great the light of heaven shal cloath her and the light of the night shal be under her feet as perfectly when she is restored as it was before the apostacy though people cannot believe this in the apostacy No revevelation nor immediate teaching nor miracles now to be expected cry the professors and these false sects and Churches it was extraordinary times and extraordinary manifestations were amongst the Apostles and Churches of old say they but the same now is not to be expected nor never to be looked for but thus they are in blindness and ignorance and unbelief But we believe the glory of this woman that hath been long fled into the wilderness and hath been long without issue while she hath been fled shal have the same fruit and issue and the same clothing that she had before she fled When the whore and her seed is removed from the face of the earth the glory of the Lambs wife shal be as great her beauty as fair her fruit as plenteous as before the whore was and they that believe it not believes not the Scriptures for that testifies of the glory of the Church to be the greatest in the last dayes as we are sure and certainly know it shal come to pass when the waters are dried up which hath been the seat of the great whore Now though all those Churches and sects of people are said to be and known to be the seed of the whore and not of the Virgin as I have declared and though Nations and Peoples and multitudes have been all running to sornication and been deceived and made drunk yet this I have to say in all sorts of people and amongst all those sects amongst Papists and Protestants and all sects risen out of them in thousands of people notwithstanding the darkness and all the Apostacy that has ruled in the general yet in some of all sorts and sects there hath been a sincerity and simplicity and a desire and zeal for God and of God in them and amongst them yet the sincerity simplicity and desire which hath stirred in some of all sects it hath no soonet appeared but it hath been smitten and betrayed by the wicked without and so by the error of judgement within for even amongst the worst of sects we know there is some in whom there is simplicity and sincerity and zeal and yet erre in judgment for this is possible and we know it is so with thousands and ten thousands at this day there may be a simplicity and zeal and sincerity of heart and yet err in judgement the judgment not truly guided by the Spirit of the Lord but a false spirit and a false thing even the spirit of whoredom it self ruling the judgment and be chief there and this destroyes murders and betrayes the zeal and simplicity and this is and hath been ever since the dayes of the Apostles great error in judgment and the judgement of all those sects have been mis-guided and misted and a false thing and not the spirit of the Lord has guided the judgment and thereby the true sincerity zeal and simplicity hath been enslaved and held under by reason of the erring in judgment and the state of such are truly to be lamented where simplicity is devoured and sincerity
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 MY Soul hath stil in remembrance the grievous shakings and rendings that have been in this Nation which entred deep into the bowels of it and made every heart ake and every mind astonished This Nation was setled in religion and outward peace in such a way as was pleasing to most but yet there was a spirit within which had been long groaning under oppression whose sighs and cryes entred into the ears of the Lord and he arose up in his fury and jealousie and rent the heavens and rent the earth so breaking the very foundations of both that men generally were amazed and wondred what would become of all The former Religion was almost buried in confusion and in danger of being utterly lost a long-spun corroding war were we entangled in which administred no hopes nor likelihood of peace The hand of the Lord reacheth through all these dominions Mastracy Ministry the common people the people of God both such as were accounted so and such as were indeed so the line of confusion was stretched over them all they did all reel and totter like a drunken man as if they had been so to fal as to rise up no more But behold how suddainly and unexpectedly was there a settlement of al again The Nation setled in peace Magistracy setled Ministry setled the common people setled and those which were shaken in their Spirits got into their several waies in religion and setled again Thus there was a general healing of all again save onely of a few whose Spirits God had so reached that their wound was incurable and unless somewhat of God had been brought forth which the world cannot know nay the religions spirit of man which is below can no more reach it then the common spirit of the world they had remained miserable lost scattered and confounded to this day But the Lord hath in infinitemercy visited them in the season of distress and there hath a little foolish thing broke forth at which all the wise and religious in the Spirit of this world cannot but stumble which hath administred relief and discovered the foundation whereupon they also can settle So that now there is as it were an universal settlement as every creature is gathered into that center which is proper and sutable to its Spirit to bottom on Now this I have to say to all Let every one look to his foundation for the Lord can arise again yea and will arise again and shake once more and then the heavens and the earth which have not a true foundation cannot but fall If the earth be not founded upon and settled in righteousness its present establishment will not stand if the heavens be not founded upon and setled in truth they will melt and pass away before the fire of the Lord. There is a spirit that mourneth deeply to the Lord groaning inwardly and his ears are open to it and he will plead the cause of his seed and the Churches and religions wherein the seed of the Serpent can live and flourish shall wither and come to an end Dust is already become the Serpents food the Spirt of man in all his exercises of religion knoweth not the bread of life but the dead feed upon the dead and the dead spirit of man loves to have it so But this cannot continue for the Lord hath been at work all this while and when he brings forth the people which he hath been forming and their religion the religion of man will appear what it is and shame and sorrow will be the portion of all who have pleased themselves therein and trifled away the day of their visitation Be wise now therefore O ye wise ones be religious O religious ones Open the eye and ear that hath been shut shut the eye and ear that hath been open Stumble no longer least ye fall and rise no more I know ye cannot see for the wrong eye is open and the Lord hath designed to hide his wisdom from that eye If it be possible for you become poor in spirit least ye at last prove to be the rich whom the Lord will send empty away Sell all apace that ye may have wherewith to buy the Pearl Ye have not known the appearance of the Lord but in your wisdom have disdained it and he hath disdained to make use of you in this great work but it hath been pleasant to him to lay stumbling blocks before you that ye might fall and be broken The children the fools the blind can see the way and enter into life but ye that are men that are wise that have both your eys that can judge in religion and determine what is Orthodox and what erroneous yet cannot O hear that your souls may live Ye know not how short your time is the day of your visitation passeth away faster then ye are aware The cry hath long gone forth Behold the Bridegroom cometh and his Spouse hath been preparing for his bed Ye must off with your old Garments and have the new Garment on ye must have the true oyl in your Lamps or the door of the Kingdom will be shut upon you and there will be no entrance for you In plain terms ye must part with all your Religion which ye have gathered in your own wisdom which hath grown up in the Apostacy and which onely can make a fair show in the dark but cannot endure the searching light of the day of the Lord and ye must purchase the true religion the true righteousness the true innocency and purity of Christ the old must be done away truly done away and the new come in the place so that flesh and self may be quite destroyed and nothing but Christ found in you and you found no where but in Christ if you enter into his Kingdom for no unclean thing can enter Therefore put away pride and passion and enmity and fleshly reasonings and seek out that which is pure and enter into it and take up the cross against all that is contrary that so you may be wrought into it and found in it And turn from all imaginings and conceivings about the meanings of Scripture in the uncertain and erring mind and come to that which is infallible And know the silencing of the fleshly part that the spiritual part may grow in the wisdom that so ye may learn in the spirit and know the word of God and be able to speak it My bowels are toward you and in bowels hath this been writâ—â— not to anger or shame you but to provoke you to jealousie against that dark and evil spirit which leads you to destruction under the guise and appearance of a light and good spirit Nor is it to glory over you for my soul lyeth down in shame and sorrow before the Lord and the reproach of my own Apostacy and seeking relief from the world turning from thâ— Lord who had wounded me to earthly vanities for ease will not easily be covered The Lord
thereof be rejected which when it it received is but like a little seed even the least of all seeds and when it growes up it is a long while but like a child and yet keeping in that childishness out of the wisdom it enters into that Kingdom which the greatest wisdom of man in al his zealous waies and forms of religion fels short and is shut out of This is the word of life this is the true living rule and way to eternal life and this is the obedience this is the hearing and doing of the word He that hath an ear let him hear Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. Are ye in the faith then Christ is in you Is not Christ in you then ye are in the reprobate state out of the faith Is Christ in you and shal he not hold the reins and rule shal the living word be in the heart and not the rule of the heart shal he speak in the heart and the man or woman in whom he speaks run to words of Scripture formerly spoken to know whether these be his words or no Nay nay his sheep know his voice better then so Did the Apostle John who had seen and tasted and handled and preached the word of life send Christians to his Epistles or any other part of Scriptures to be their rule Nay he directed them to the anointing as a sufficient Teacher 1 Joh. 2. 17. He that believeth on me as the scriptuce hath said out of his belly shal flow rivers of living water Joh. 7. 38. He that hath the fountain of life in him issuing up rivers of living water continually hath he need to go forth to fetch in water The Kingdom of heaven is within you saith Christ and he bids seek the kingdom Light the candle sweep thine own house seek diligently for the kingdom there it is if thou canst find it Now he that hath found the kingdom within shal he look without into words spoken concerning the kingdom to find the lawes of the kingdom Are not the lawes of the kingdom to be found within the kingdom Shal the kingdom be in the heart and the laws of the kingdom written without in a book Is not the Gospel the ministration of the spirit and shal he who hath received the spirit run back to the letter to be his guid shal the living spirit that gave forth Scriptures be present and not have preheminence above his own words What is the proper intent of the letter is it not to testifie of the spirit and to end in the spirit The Law the Prophets John led to Christ in the flesh and he was to be the increasing light when they should decrease Christ words in the flesh the Apostles words afterwards and al words since are but to lead to Christ in the spirit to the eternal living substance and then the words of Christ of the Apostles or any words spoken from the same spirit in these dayes have brought to the spirit to the feeling and setling of the soul in the living foundation and to the building and perfecting of the man of God therein they have attained their end and glory But to cry up these not understanding their voice but keeping at a distance from the thing that they invite to the words hereby are put out oftheir place out of their proper use and service and so attain neither their end nor their glory And though men put that upon them which seems to be a greater glory namely to make them his rule and guid yet it being not a true glory it is no glory but a dishonour both to them and to the spirit who gave them to another end Now for the other part of the Objection that if men should be lest to their own spirits and should follow the guidance of their own spirits it would produce confusion and uncertainty I do acknowledge it it would do so But here is no leaving of a man to his own spirit spoken of or intended but the directing and guiding of a man to the word and spirit of life to know and hear the voice of Christ which gathers and translates man out of his own spirit into his spirit and here is no confusion or uncertainty but order certainty and stability The light of Gods spirit is a certain and infallible rule and the ey that sees that is a certain ey whereas mans understanding of the Scriptures is uncertain and fallible he having not the true ear receiveth such a literal uncertain knowledg of things into his uncertain understanding as deceives his soul And here man in the midst of his wisdom and knowledg of the Scriptures is lost in his own erring and uncertain mind and his soul deceived for want of a true root and foundation of certainty in himself But he that is come to the true shepherd and knows his voice he cannot be deceived Yea he can read the Scriptures safely and taste the true sweetnesse of them for he being in the life can taste the sweetnesse of the words that came from the life but man who is out of the life feeds on the husks and can receive no more He hath gathered a dead dry literal husky knowledg out of the Scripture and that he can relish but should the life of the words and things there spoken of be opened to him he could not receive them he himself being out of that wherewith they were wrote and wherein alone they can be understood But poor man having lost the life what should he do he can do no other but cry up the letter and make as good shift with it as he can though his soul the mean while is starved and lies in famine and death for want of the bread of life and a wrong thing is fed The Scribes and Pharisees made a great noise about the law and ordinances of Moses exclaiming against Christ and his disciples as breakers and profaners of them yet they themselves did not truly honor the law and ordinances of Moses but their own doctrines commandements and traditions So these now who make a great noise about the Scriptures and about the institutions of the Apostles do not honor the Scriptures or the institutions of the Apostles but their own meanings their own conceivings their own inventions and imaginations thereupon They run to the Scriptures with that understanding which is out of the truth and which never shall be let into the truth and so being not able to reach and comprehend the truth as it is they study they invent they imagine a meaning they form a likeness a similitude of the truth as neer as they can and this must go for the truth and this they honor and bow before as the will of God which being not the will of God but a likeness of their own inventing and forming they
of God were in them this enmity could not stand nor such fruits of it shoot forth But they have not seen the father or the Son and that life of them which appears in the earth the evill spirit in man seeks to destroy that he may keep up his own image and shadow of life which the nature of the true life in its appearance fights against By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciple if ye love one another And by this may all men know that those that now go for Christians are not Christs Disciples in that they do not love one another They are not in unity in the light and so cannot love one another there but are onely in unity in forms in opinions in professions in practises so any difference there stirs up the enmity causing risings in the heart against them at least if it proceed not further The true love grows from true union and fellowship in the light where that is not known there cannot be true love in the spirit but a fained love in the flesh 5. The true hope joy and peace is lost The true ground of hope is Christ in the heart and the true hope is that hope which ariseth from this ground from the feeling of Christ there Christ in you the hope of Glory Col. 1. 27. What is the true Christians hope it is Christ in him he hath eternal life abiding in him and he knows that cannot but lead to glory But what is the common Christians hope He fastens his hope upon the relation and his beliefe of an History He that believeth shall be saved I believe therefore I shall be saved And thus as he hath got up a wrong faith and a wrong love so he gets up a wrong hope And this hope will perish for this is the hope of the Hypocrite or an hope in the hypocritical nature which complies with Scripture-words but is not in union with God nor with the life of the Scriptures and so being without the anchor is tossed in the waves of the Sea And the true joy is in he spirit from what is felt and injoyned and hoped for there But the common Christians joy is from things which he gathers into and comprehends in his understanding or from flashes which he feels in his affectionate part from a fire and sparkes of his own kindling from whence he fetches his warmth and comfort And the true peace stands in the reconciliation with God by having that broken down which causeth the wrath and to which the wrath is where ever it is found The Lambe of God breaks down the wall of separation in the heart the blood of Jesus wherein is the life clenseth away the sin there maketh the heart pure uniteth the pure heart to the pure God here 's union here 's fellowship here 's peace But the common Christians peace is from a mis-understanding of Scriptures while the wall of separation is standing while wickednesse lodges in the heart They reason themselves from Scripture words into an apprehension that God is at peace with them and that they are in union with him while that of God which is in them witnesseth against them and checks them and wars with them and they are not one with it nor cannot be in that nature and understanding wherein their life lies to which belongs no peace 6. The true repentance conversion and regeneration hath been lost The true Repentance is from dead works and from the dead principle whence all the dead works proceed but these have not been repented of but perished in the apostacy The praying the striving the worshipping the fighting hath been from the dead principle The building up and whole exercise of Religion in the Apostacy hath been in that understanding which is to be destroyed and the will which should have been crucified hath been pleased and fed with its religion The true Conversion is from the power of Satan to God from the darknesse to the light But in the Apostacy men have not known God or Satan the light or the darknesse but have mistook taking the one for the other worshipping the Devil in stead of God Rev. 13. 4. and following the dark conceivings of their own and other mens minds concerning scripture and calling them light Regeneration is a changing of man whereby the birth is born of the Spirit the stripping of the creature of its own nature of its own understanding of its own will and forming it anew in the wombe of the Spirit so that the old creature is passed away and there comes forth a new thing which growes up daily in the new life towards the fulnesse of Christ But men have been so far from being born of the spirit that they have not so much as known the gift of the spirit in them but to this day are enemies and at a distance from that of God in them which is pure And if they could but open their eyes they would see that their birth is fleshly and consists at best but in such a conformity to the letter as the old nature may imitate and attain but the immortal seed is not sprung up in them nor they dead to the mortal or alive to the immortal 7. The true wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption is lost The true wisdom stands in the fear of God and departing from evil This those that are taught of God learn and thereby are made wise unto salvation But most that are called Christians are not come to the fear of God and many are got above it looking upon it as legall and not appertaining to the Gospel but the Gospel state is love which casteth out fear Doth the love of God refuse or cast out the fear of God Nay it casts out the fear that brings bondage the fear that came in by transgression which fear is stirred up and discovered by the Law And this is a fear of sin or a fear arising from sin through the Law 's manifestation of it and the wrath against it which causeth both the fear and much bondage from the fear And this the Gospel which discovers the love the mercy the grace the power and unites to them frees from and casts out But then there is a fear of God a fear wrought in the heart by his spirit a fear which is part of the new Covenant I will put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me a fear which is part of the everlasting Gospel Rev. 14. 6 7. and endureth for ever Psal 19. 9. And this fear is not bondage but liberty it is indeed bondage to the unjust but liberty to the just for where this fear is sin is departed from it sets free it delivers the feet out of the snare of iniquity there 's true liberty Can sin prevail in that heart where the pure clean fear of God is placed by God to keep it down The love of God doth not cast out this fear but keeps
Object But hath there been no true Religion since the daies of the Apostes no true rule no true worship no true faith no true love no true hope joy or peace no true repentance conversion regeneration no true wisdom righteousnes sanctification and redemption no true Church no true Ministry What hath become of all our fore-fathers did they all perish And hath not this ministry converted many to God were not yee your selves converted by it Nay have not many of them been Martyrs and witnessed to the truth of God And though some of them are bad yet are not many of them zealous and conscientious Preachers of the Word at this day By such reasonings as these the wisdom of man much strengthens and hardens it selfe against the truth Answ The rule in Nations the worship in Nations the faith love hope joy peace repentance conversion regeneration c. which have been cried up in Nations for the truth the Churches in Nations the Ministry in Nations all these have been corrupted and never recovered their true state to this day There have been changes from one thing to another but the restauration hath not been known The whorish spirit hath been hunted puriued and so run out of one form into another traversing her way and changing her ground and garments but hath not been taken and judged to the death and the true spirit hath not been able to find the bed of her husband but hath wandered from mountain to hil all the time of this cloudy and dark day forgetting her resting place Yet though the whole earth was corrupted and false doctrine and worship set up every where among the Nations which continued the fornication and whoredom from the spirit of life in the publick wayes and national worships notwithstanding this even all this while God reserved a seed to himselfe which he caused to spring up in a remnant and which he moved and carried on to witnesse against somewhat of these corruptions in their several ages and generations And as fast as the beast killed and knocked down these God raised up more yea though the whorish spirit in some Nations painted her self curioussy leaving some of the grosse Doctrines and Worships of Popery and got into a more refined way yet God raised up witnesses against her there also and still doth into what form soever she gets for though of late she hath decked her self very pleasingly as she think and covered her selfe round with scripture-words and professions and practises as like as ever she can form them to the practises of former Saints yet quick and lively is the spirit of God that searcheth after her who hath found her out and raised up witnesses against her there also Now this seed this remnant though they were not able to recover the possession of the life and power that was lost yet they had a true taste of it and their testimony which they gave out from that taste was true and so far as they kept to this testimony in the faith and in the patience which they had learned and received from God though but in a low measure they were accepted of him So that all were not lost in this night of darkness but such as feared God and knew and hearkned to his voice had the testimony of his presence with them and tasted of his life and power in measure God was not an hard master to them but tender and gentle and contented to reap what he sowed But the appearance of God in this dark time was weak and low and easie to be made a prey of And this is very observable that so long as the simplicity ran pure it was preserved but so soon as ever the spirit of man was tempted either into any old or into any new invented form the wisdom of the flesh got in with it grew up more than it and when it had gathered strength corrupted the vessel betrayed the simplicity and lost the life Thus many pretious beginnings and buddings forth of life have been betrayed in these late daies There was a pretious thing stirring in Queen Maries dayes the life whereof was more hurt and suppressed by that dead form of Episcopacy succeeding afterwards then by the foregoing persecution The persecution did clear and brighten it but the fleshly form of Episcopacy brought death over it And the forms of Presbytery Independency Anabaptism have been little lesse then graves to bury and keep down the life How many spirits that had a precious savour in them at their entrance into those forms did soon become fleshly earthly and very unsavory loosing the quicknesse and freshness that was in them before and falling into the deadness of the form withering with it And as touching the Ministry though in it self it was evill being in the degeneration from the true Ministry all this time of the Apostacy and the persons therein for the most very corrupt being brought up to it as to a trade and making use of it as a trade yet I do believe that there was a simplicity of heart in some persons among them which did cause them in some degree of faithfulnesse to seek the Lord his service and the good of souls And in the time of ignorance and darkness it pleased God to wink at and over-look the evill and to cause good to passe from the good in them to the good in others through the evil that hung about both And this was the great tenderness of the Lord in pitty to his poor creatures who were very destitute to help in the thick night of darkness and should not now be made use of to justifie and keep up the evil Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unkind Because his mercy and goodness extended to you notwithstanding the evil which might have hindered will ye make that an argument to keep up the evill and to oppose the light which discovers it Because God causeth light to shine through the darkness and visiteth man in the dark wil ye therfore set up the darkness as his proper way of ministration The corrupt way call and exercise of the corrupt ministry could not keep out the tender love of God but he had respect to the simplicity of some who were found in it and to the simplicity of others who waited on him for instruction there and did please to give some answer to both And will ye make this uningenious use of it to interpret it as his approbation of that ministry which sprung up in the Apostacy from him among those that were apostatised and is a great dishonour to him and the abhorring of his soul A ministry of Christ a ministry set up by his spirit is precious but a ministry made by man according to his will and ministring in his wisdom the soul of the Lord beareth as a burthen and is pressed with it and as he raiseth up his own life wil ease himself of it And what do they minister from but the literal
part of the Scriptures which killeth and cannot give life and what do they minister with but their own understanding part what meanings they can invent what deductions the wisdom can draw from the Scriptures but do not see the true meaning in the infallible and unerring light and what do they minister to but the understanding part in you whereas there is somewhat else to be ministred to by the true Minister and what do they minister to you but food for the understanding food for the serpentine wisdom which alwaies fed upon knowledge but never upon the true bread and hereby another thing is fed in you and not your souls but they are kept in leanness and barrenness under death and the bondage of corruption which Paul cryed out upon as a wretched state and could find no ease rest or freedom from condemnation there and without the true life and redemption I do do not deny but ye may there meet with some kind of warmth in the affectionate part which may be heated by a fire and sparks of mans kindling and blowing up and this may go for life with you now but in the presence of the truth where the eye is opened it vanisheth yea the spirit of the Lord hath so blown upon it that it is even withered in the sight of a more inferiour eye in many people Position III. THat there is to be a recovery a true recovery out of this state of Apostacy into the true state of Christianity again God will not let the desolations of Sion remain for ever but he will again build up Sion and appear in his glory He will set his King upon his holy hill of Sion The new Jerusalem shall again come down from heaven The Man-childe which was taken up shall come down again conquering and to conquer the Lamb shal get the victory over the Whore and over all her apostatized Nations and Churches that have a name and not the life and he shall rule them with a rod of iron and make them a desolation which have made his holy city desolate and trample them down which have trampled upon it The lofty City he will lay low he wil lay it low even to the ground he wil bring it even to the dust The foot shall tread it down the feet of the poor the steps of the needy The whore shall be judged with the beast whereupon she rode the life which they trod upon shall rise up in the mighty power of the Lord and over-turn them The everlasting Gospel shall be again preached to them that dwel on the earth and to every Nation and kindred and tongue and people Rev. 14. 6. Mark the Gospel that was preached to the Nations all the time of the Apostacy was not the everlasting Gospel that Gospel did not bring life and immortality to life but they were hid from mens eyes and men had only a sound of words in stead of the thing And thus poor Nations kindreds people tongues were every where bewitched with a form of things with an outward knowledg a perishing knowledg in the perishing part a vain traditional invented worship which stands in the wisdom and will of man but had no union and fellowship with that which is everlasting And thus all the Nations in the smoke of the bottomlesse pit run into the pit from whence the smoke came But the Lord hath a time to pitty the poor Nations and to send forth his true everlasting Gospel again to deliver the Nations from that witchery and sorcery and spiritual inchantment which got up in the dark And as this everlasting light springs up then down goes Babylon down go all invented doctrines all invented forms all invented worships and that wisdom and evill spirit that raised them up Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City because she made all Nations drunk of the wine of the cup of her fornication Rev. 14. 1 And now the new wine of the kingdom which is tasted of in the everlasting Gospel purges out the old wine and the drunkennesse which thereby came upon the Nations wasts And they that have tasted of this life and know this life can never be bewitched back again by the whorish spirit to dead forms â—nd likenesses without life Nay when Babylon falls she can rise no more Though the life fall often it can rise again but when the witchery from the life is discovered and cast into the pit it can get out no more Indeed the beast hath had all the strength of the Nations and the whore hath had all the wisdom all the esteem all the honor who can make war with the beast who can shew miracles and wonders like the false Prophets who can teach but the wise learned orthodox men that have the arts and know the original yea there 's another that can make war and a Prophet that can preach better then them one that can preach life one that can preach the everlasting Gospel and knows the original of it one that is wiser and stronger then the whore and by his wisdom and strength is able to judge her and cast her out of the Nations though she hath got very strong possession Rev. 18. 8. Now learn wisdom know the parable of the fig-tree come to the life that is arisen and abide not in the death that is passed and passing away Ye have heard the voice of the Whore ye have drunk of her cup ye have been bewitched ye have set up her inventions but have wanted the thing which cannot be invented and which the inventing understanding cannot comprehend But if the force of the wine still remain upon you so that ye cannot hearken after or let in that which is everlasting assure your selves as the life rises ye will meet with plagues and wrath from it in stead of the refreshments it brins to others and know what it is to sit down under a dead talk of without feeling the living power of redemption Therefore be wise and know the times and seasons That will not be born with now which was born with formerly but as the love and power of God to salvation hath more appeared so the severity against those who now resist will appear more also And death shall have its sting which they that will love darknesse and hate the light shall feel Position IV. THat they that are in those things which have been set up in the times of the Apostacy are not yet come to the recovery from the Apostacy They that are in the Doctrines and bodies of Divinity which have been formed since are not in the true Doctrine They that are in the rules of life which wise Church-men or Synods or Councils have given or which they themselves have gathered by their industry out of the Scriptures are not in the true living and everlasting rule They that are in the worship or under the Ministry or of any Church which hath been set up since by the power of man
or from the inventing wisdom though this wisdom hath founded its inventions upon the Scriptures are not in the true worship in the true Church or under the true Ministry They that are in the faith which hath since been gathered into the understanding and did not spring up from the mystery of life in the heart are not in the true faith The same may be said of love hope joy peace and all the rest mentioned before yea and all other things in religion for all hath been corrupted even the inward part And while here hath been a great contention about forms of worship and Church-Government the power of godlinesse and the Government of Christ in the heart hath been lost Observe diligently what I have now to say When the Apostles who had the true Ministry preached the Gospel they stirred and raised up the power of God in the heart and the power of sin corruption and deceit sunk down and was under foot and trampled upon by the power But when Antichrist and the false Prophets arose they raised up the corruption again and fed it with doctrines of deceit but the power sunk down and was not felt but buried all that time of the prevailing of the corruption and deceit Now the power was not lost all this while in it self but onely lost to man so that he knew not where to find it Yet this power in this time of loss did stir and move and make men in some degree sensible of the losse causing them to part and seek after the living truth And this was good this was of God But then there was an evil spirit which was neer to the good and lay lurking in the serpentine wisdom of the heart and that drew the mind which was bent toward the seeking of a right thing a wrong way that cryed loe here loe there look into the Scriptures the Church was so and so go get into such a thing the Christians there did so and so go do such a thing there 's the way there thou shall meet with the life and the power And thus it drew from that which stirred within into an imitation of a form without and there they came to a losse I dare appeal to all honest hearts Was there not a good thing stirring in you when ye went into your Church forms were ye not led into simplicity hoping to meet with life and power there did ye find it so did ye meet with the life and power there nay did ye not lose it there and become deader I know if ye have not forgotten the taste of life ye will confesse to me that that which now ye have is not life but far short of that which ye had when ye entred into your form Ah poor hearts the whore betwitched you the harlot in your bosomes and the false Prophets without helped to increase the witchery crying lo here and lo there but ye knew no that the kingdom of heaven was within from whence that stirring of life was in you where ye should have kept and not have gone forth But now ye are dead and buried in your graves lying there without sense and are now got into the spirit of the world and into the enmity against that life in others which was then your own life And do ye know where ye are and what ye are doing Can ye bear to hear it Of a truth ye are in the snare of the enemy in the inchantment from the life in the whores bed in the strumpets bosome and not in the bosome of your beloved And your practises are branches of the sornication parcels of the whoredom inventions which have been gathered in by that understanding and set up by that will which whored from God They are the effects and products of the whores cup which gets new dresses new habits new forms new wayes to cosen and deceive the simple with but still she remains the whore and those who are seduced by her are led into her whoredom For when God discovers and hunts her out of one form then she decks her self with another perhaps more seemingly spiritual more Scripture like and so more likely to take with the simple heart and then she lies in wait for the young man to entrap him again saying Come in hither This is the true way of God without doubt did not the Saints meet with life here formerly Come thou hither also here 's the bed of thy beloved take thy fil of life thy fill of love And thus the poor honest simple heart followes her going like a fool to the correction of the stocks not knowing that it is for his life until he come to feel the loss of life And there if she find she cannot keep him there but fresh stirrings of life spring up in him again and withdraw him from that which had deceived him then she paints again and lies in wait for him again to catch him in some more refined appearance or in some elevated notion or at least in the shadow of that which was true for the whore hath not onely art and power to invent forms and likenesses of that which is true and make Idols and Images of them but it hath power also given it over the outward Court so that that which is found there it can make idols and images of That which is corruptible it can get into and corrupt and make an enemy to that life which lived in it before it was corrupted and when it is corrupted then there is no more truth or life to be found there but the Idol and the idolatry The Apostle John who fore-warned of Antichrist and gave a mark whereby he might be known namely by his not confessing Christ come in the flesh 1 Joh. 4. 3. which he that setteth up any thing of the old Covenant or any invention or imitation of any thing therein doth not he bids also beware of Idols Little Children keep your selves from Idols 1 Joh. 5. 21. Now what is an Idol The Apostle Paul saith An Idol is nothing in the world An Idol is no true thing in its place but a false thing set up in stead of the true A false conception of God in the mind is an Idol A false Church or Temple is an Idol a false Minister who is not made according to the appointment of God and by the gift of his Spirit but came in another way by the appointment of men is an Idol-shepherd and the worship in this Church and by this ministry is publique Idolatry and all the worship in families which hath been erected after the same maner is without the guidance of the spirit of God is private Idolatry Were the heathens Temples Altars Priests Sacrifices and other inventions of theirs in imitation of the Jews Idolatrous and are not the inventions of the heathenish spirit or Antichristian nature in man are not they also Idolatrous Object But is praying Idolatry preaching Idolatry singing Idolatry Baptising of Infants Idolatry breaking
of bread Idolatry Answ The praying which God appointed is not Idolatry Praying in the Spirit of God when he moves and according to the will of God which is onely known in the Spitit is not Idolatry but thy praying in thine own spirit and at thine own times and according to thine own wil perhaps in way of imitation of the Jewish morning and evening Sacrifices this is Idolatry This is that which thou hást set up in stead of that which God set up and so it is not the true thing which God set up but an Idol of thine own making and so thou worshippest not God therein but that spirit which helped thee to invent and set up the Idol The same might be said concerning preaching singing washing with water breaking of bread and what ever else is practised in Religion upon these terms Object But doth not the Scripture mention these things and did not the Saints practise these things surely they were not Idolaters Can I be an Idolater in practising that which they practised Answ Nay thou art mistaken they are not the things which they practised The stress of their Religion lay in the life of it in the presence of the spirit of God in it it was his breath made it the truth Now if thou couldst have the same things that they had yet without the same living breath they would be but dead things but Idols But thou hast not the true form of things neither thou hast not the true Church the true Ministry the true Ordinances according to the form but things set up in their stead by the invention of man in the time of the Apostacy from the true things and what can these be but Idols The world wondered after the beast and they worshipped the Dragon which gave power unto the beast and they worshipped the beast Rev. 13. 3 4. Behold what was worshipped at the time of the Apostacy That which arose from the beastly invention of man and not from the true spirit of life And the inventing and setting up of these and worshipping according to these inventions is worshipping the Dragon for he getteth in and lodgeth in mans inventions and not the living God And therfore God at the end of this Apostacy raiseth up a new ministry to recal the Nations from worshipping the Dragon to the worship of God again ver 6. 7. of that Chapter What the Gentiles sacrificed of old they sacrificed to Devils and not to God 1 Cor. 10. 20. And what the late Gentiles sacrifice I mean Christians in the heathenish nature Christians to whom the outward court was given Rev. 11. 2. and who have not a profession of the Saints words and practises but without life they sacrifice not to God neither but to that spirit that helped them to invent and form a likenesse or image of the truth Transgressing the principle of God within they go from God and from his worship and the Devil who went out from the truth gets in and they go into his power and whatever they perform in worship there is to him for when they go from the principle of God in them the Devil gets into their hearts and God goes out and his true life power and worship is not known but an image or likeness which the Devil sets up in stead of the true thing So then in that state let men consider what they worship for there they cry up ordinancies and duties and kill one another about them thinking that they worship and honour God thereby but know not nor are come to that wherein God alone can be worshipped and honoured I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not saith the spirit Rev. 2. 9. is this blasphemy For a man to call himself a Christian who is not what is that to call that a Church which is not what is that to call him a Minister of Christ who is not what is that to call those the Ordinances of Christ which are not what is that to call that faith which is not that justification which is not c. what is that Can ye spy out the blasphemer ye have made a great out-cry against him long are ye willing now he should be put to death The Lord hath lighted his candle he is searching for him and he will find him out and as he have desired so it shall be the Lord will not spare him O be awakened be awakened ye heathenish Christians Open the eye that can see and behold where ye are and what ye are doing and how fast ye are running into the pit Ye have forgotten God ye have lost the true line of judgement ye have lost the key of knowledg and the light that is in you is darkness and leads to darkness though ye cannot possibly believe it Oh come back to the remembrance of God and and to true holinesse without which no man shall see him for the wicked shall be turned into hel and all the Nations that forget God and ye have forgotten him days without number Position V. THat the onely way of recovery out of the Apostacy is by returning to and keeping in that spirit from which the Apostacy was The Apostacy came by leaving the spirit of God and running after another spirit and the recovery must be by leaving that other Spirit and returning to the spirit of God again How did Christians formerly begin their Religion They began in the Spirit Gal 3. 3. and so they were to go on to perfection and not intermix any thing of the flesh And had the anointing been kept to Antichrist and the mystery of iniquity had been kept out and where that is returned to the Antichristian spirit is purged out by degrees and the wayes thereof discovered and forsaken Therefore know the whorish Spirit in thy self which is busy to form likenesses in thy mind to seduce thee and to make thee fall in love with the likenesses which she hath formed in other mens minds and let her not deceive thee with her paint and gawdy appearances but know likewise the little seed of life from which truth springs up in thee and in which the spirit of truth dwels and is to be found and take heed least the serpentine wisdom teach thee to despise and turn from it From this spring it was that truth sprung up in the witnesses all the time of the Apostacy for they had their testimony from the spirit of Prophesie Rev. 19. 10. So far as they kept to that they gave a true testimony so far as their own spirits mixed with it they corrupted it But to abide in that was very hard and there was need of much affliction and persecution to keep the flesh down and to preserve the life pure But as the life springs up more strongly and overcomes that spirit inwardly I mean the wise fleshly spirit there wil be less need of outward afflictions or persecutions yea or inward either but there will be a safe
to this covenant he saves Man by his disunion and distance from God he perisheth by being brought again to God he lives again which thing Christ effecteth by the new covenant So then he that is not lead by Christ into that covenant is not in the state of salvation 3. That the new covenant is written in the heart or there is no other way of coming into the new covenant whereof Christ is the High-priest and Mediator but by having the Laws of God written in the heart This is the covenant c. I will put my Laws into their minde and write them in their hearts c. they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest Heb. 8. 10. 11. He is speaking of the covenant whereof Christ is mediator ver 6. which he cals a new covenant ver 8. and saith it is not like the old ver 9. instancing in two main particulars wherein it is very unlike 1. The old was writ outwardly in letters to be read by the outward ey but this is writ inwardly in the heart and minde and so can only be read by a spiritual ey 2. Under the old they needed teaching from men the priests lips were to preserve knowledge and they were to seek the law at his mouth but now they should have the law so neer them so cleerly written in them that they should need none to teach them From the law is the knowledge of God the law is in the heart and from the law in the heart springs up the knowledge of God in the least and in the greatest that are within this covenant that they need not say know the Lord. This is the state of the new covenant which the Christians came to in those dayes 1 Joh. 2. ver 27. but it hath been a strange thing in this dark night of Apostacy and is yet a strange thing to many But let such consider can a man be a Christian and be out of that covenant whereof Christ is the mediator Can a man be brought back again to God by Christ and yet be out of that covenant whereby Christ brings men back to God O how hath Satan deluded poor souls in this thick night of darkness to make men believe they have faith in Christ and shall be saved thereby while they are quite ignorant of and strangers to that covenant whereby Christ the mediat or saves They shall all know me from the least to the greatest Marke there is not the least in this covenant but hath the law so written in his heart that he need not seek out for knowledge 4. That the spirit of God alone can write the covenant in the heart or that Christ writes the covenant by his spirit Man by all his wisdom cannot attain it Man is driven out from God and cannot finde the way back again to him without the teachings and leadings of Gods own spirit It is not the being educated in any way of Religion from ones childhood or the leaving of that and running into any sect afterwards that will avail any thing hereto but the alone hearkening to the true voice of the true spirit It is written in the Prophets concerning the children of this covenant that they shall be all taught of God And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. It is the Lord alone who by his spirit teacheth them to come to Christ and to receive the new covenant into their hearts from Christ For man is in an incapacity to know or receive Christ or his covenant until the spirit hath fitted and taught him John 14. 17. but when he hath prepared and fitted his heart then with his own finger he writeth the pure law of the nature and life of Christ therein by the receit where of he cometh out of his old dark spirit and nature into the true knowledge of God and union with him I will put my spirit within you Ezek. 36. 27. This is part of the covenant and indeed that part whereby all the rest is wrought 5. Therefore the first proper step in Religion is to know how to meet with Gods spirit There is no progress no true progress to be made in the true Religion till a man comes into the covenant and there is no coming into the covenant but by the spirit therefore the first thing that is absolutely necessary to be known in Religion is the spirit his writing or at least his motions and stirrings in the heart It may further be evidenced thus all things in Religion acceptable to God flow from the spirit All knowledge is to come from him for he alone hath revealed and can reveal truth and is appointed by Christ to lead into all truth All worship is to be offered up in him they that worship the father must worship him in the spirit and in the truth for the father seeketh such to worship him but rejecteth all other worshippers and worship how glorious soever their worship may seem to them Particularly praying is alwayes to be in the spirit Ephes 6. 18. Jude 20. so singing c. yea the whole life and conversation is to be in the spirit Galath 5. 25. The mortifying of all corruption is to be done by the spirit If ye through the spirit mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. Indeed a Christian is nothing and can do nothing without the power and presence of the spirit of God in him So then if nothing in Religion can be done with acceptance to God without the spirit then the spirit is the first thing to be looked after by him who would be truly and well-groundedly religious 6. The first way of meeting with the spirit of God is as a Convincer of sin Here is the true enterance This is the Key that opens into life eternal He that can receive it let him It is not by soring alost into high imaginations and forms of worship but by coming down to this low thing This is the first and most proper work of the spirit of God toward fallen man whereby he makes way toward the writing of Gods Law in the heart namely to convince of sin And where should man look first to meet with him but in his first work upon him When Christ promised the comforter the spirit of truth he said this concerning him that he should convince the world of sin John 16. 8. They who are created a new in Christ and become his Disciples receive comfort from the spirit but what is he to the world or how may they feel any operation of him why he is to them a convincer of sin and they may finde him checking them for and convincing them of their sins So that the great work for man while he lies in the darkness for when he is translated into the light it will be easy is to know how to distinguish the movings and
stirrings of the spirit of God And this is the best way for man in this state to know them by That which discovers that which is evill that is good that which discovers that which is spiritually evill that must needs be spiritually good for evll is darkness and cannot make it self manifest That which discovers that which is undoubtedly pure and inclines to it that must needs be of God Now to know this and be joyned unto it is a joyning of the creature unto God by some what of him that comes from his spirit and so is a true beginning of life eternal 7. That whereby the spirit of God convinceth of sin is his light shining in the conscience Fallen man is darkness The light shines in the darkness and shews man the evill which otherwise would ly covered in him Man fel from God lost the image of God and became wholly darkness but the spirit of God is light and shines in the darkness and strives with man to reduce him back again to that light from which he fel. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God c. 2. Cor. 4. 6. Where did the Apostles and Christians in those dayes meet with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ God shined it in their hearts He that made the light to shine out of the dark deep Genes 1. 2. by his spirit he by the same spirit made the light of the knowledge of life shine in their dark hearts and there it is also that the work of conviction is wrought by the same spirit He that perfects the good work in the heart the same is he that begins it there and his beginning is by reproving and convincing of sin and so turning the heart from it unto God and unto the obedience of that righteousness which he makes manifest And he that meeteth not with the spirit in the beginning of his work or slinketh back and goeth not on with him but smothereth his reproofes not forbearing that or parting with that for which he is reproved is never like to meet with him in the end And then it will be too late for him to blame that Religion wherein there was only a dead form but not the living power of God He that will come to life eternal must be translated out of his dead understanding and all his dead wayes and worships which please that understanding into a living principle and keep in that principle and then he shall know life indeed and the true food of that life and the true worship and service from that life and the reward belonging to all 8. That this light convincing of sin shineth in every conscience He hath shewed thee O man what is good Micah 6. 8. The life which was in Christ was the light of men Joh. 1. 4. Christ is the light of the World Joh. 8. 12. God as he loved the World so he manifested his love to the World by sending his light into it to enlighten every man that cometh into the World that with the light they might see his Son and as many as receive him to them he gives power to become the Sons of God As God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth So he hath given that light to all which may bring to the knowledge of the truth which saveth He is the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the World Joh. 1. 9. The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men c. As the enemy got possession of every mans heart by filling it with darkness so Christ pursueth and seeketh to dispossess the enemy by the light which he sendeth after him into every man And this is the condemnation of man not that he wants a light to witness against and draw him from the enemy but that he loves the enemy and chuseth to be one with the enemy but hates the light and turns from it Joh. 3. 10. 20. He hearkens to the reasonings of his minde against the light and so smothers and choaks it but does not turn to the light to have all the reasonings and strength of his minde subdued by it and subjected to it 9. The true way to life eternal is by believing in the light of the spirit which shineth in the conscience Man is in darkness which keeps him in death and there is no way to come out of the death but by coming out of the darkness and there is no way to come out of the darkness but by following that light which discovers it and cals forth from it And he that doth follow that cannot remain in the darkness but must needs come out There is an evil principle in man calling for evil and there is a good principle calling from the evil to the good Now he that follows the good cannot follow the evil but departs from it I am the light of the World saith Christ he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life Joh. 8. 12. But this is that which undoes man he loves the darkness he loves the world the course of the world the worships of the world He loves his own understanding and his own will and so hates that light which crosseth these which teach would him by the denial of them to crucify that nature from whence they spring and to which they are sutable And from hence it comes to pass the love to sin within being strong and Satan the strong man keeping the house that the motions of Gods spirit are easily overborn either by reasonings of the understanding or by perversnes of the will But if man durst trust himself to them he would quickly finde of what nature they were by the strong opposition of the strong man against them It is indeed a strait and narrow way into which no flesh can enter and walk And yet it is the only way for there is no life in God no peace with God while the enemy lives in the heart But when the light is received and turned to then the power begins to work which slayes the enemy in the heart and that being done there is no more war but peace Then the true peace which passeth understanding fills and refreshes the heart where as the peace which was in the soul before was but the peace of the enemy and will abide no longer then the enemy is suffered to keep possession quietly 10. That believing in the light of the Spirit which shines in the conscience unites the soul to God and opens the springs of life to it Belief in darkness which is unbelief towards God disunited the soul and closed up the springs of life from it belief in the light which is sent to lead from the darkness unites again and opens the springs again God is light he dwels in the
Christ was the same yesterday to day and for ever and the light that comes from him is like him that also is the same yesterday to day and for ever It was the same under the law the same before the law the same since the lavv As the darkness all along hath been the same so the light all along hath been the same also It vvas the same in the Jews and the same in the Gentiles It vvas this God expected obedience to from the Jews and the Prophet in the name of the Lord disdains their sacrifices and brings them to this Micah 6. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Their eye vvas upon sacrifices and oyl the prophet points them to that vvhich vvould bring them to the right sacrifice and to the true oyl And the Gentiles so far as they vvere obedient to this vvere accepted and excused in their ovvn consciences the faithful vvitness vvhereof is of God and vvil stand in the day of Christ Ro. 2. 15. 16. That which was from the beginning saith the Apostle John declare we unto you 1 Joh. 1. 1. And this is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at al ver 5. And the end of preaching this message is to dravv out of the darkness into the light to bring men to the feeling of the light of God in them and so to union vvith it vvhich being turned to dravvs out of the darkness God vvho is light is nigh to every man vvho is darkness though mans sense is very thick and can hardly see or feel him and a light from him shines in mans darkness but mans darkness comprehends it not So that this light is not nevv in it self but onely nevv to the old Spirit vvhich hath long lain hid in the region of darkness and death hath not known the light of life Object 2. That this is a natural light or the light of old Adams nature Answ It is in one sense a natural light it is of the nature of him from whom it comes of the nature of God and of his Christ whom it appears for but it is not of the nature of corrupt Adam whom it always reproved and against whom it stil stands a witness and condemns all corruption Man is darkness and when Christ comes to redeem him he finds him darkness and Christ finds no light in him to help him to discover sin to him but all the disoveries of sin that are made in the heart are by the light of Christ and not by any light of mans nature The Lord is the searcher of the heart and he searcheth it with his own candle and not with any left in mans nature Man fel into darkness knew not wher he was but the Lord cometh after him with his candle discovereth his state to him It is the light from which man fel and against which he sins that is alone able to make his disobedience manifest to him We know saith the Apostle that the law is spiritual but I an carnal Rom. 7. 14. The law is the lowest part of the light and yet that is spiritual and of Christs nature and not of Adams nature we know it saith the Apostle Such as know the nature of that which manifests sin know it to be spiritual It is the fallen man from the light the man in the darkness that cals the light darkness but that which discovers the darkness and reproves the darkness and warrs against the darkness is not darkness but the light of life And those who are spiritual and feel the nature and power of it in their spirits know it to be so But man hath set up a light of his own hath raised up a light by his study and invention in the strength of the fallen wisdom and now setting up this for light he must needs call the true light darkness as the Pharisees did Christ Object 3. That it makes the Scriptures void and useless Answ It came from the spirit that gave forth the Scriptures it is of the same nature with the light that shone in them that gave forth Scriptures it speaks the same thing with Scriptures it leads to the same thing and it opens witnesses to the words which the Scriptures speak and so it brings the Scriptures which have been long abused into their true use Indeed it puts an end to the corrupt use of Scriptures to mans inventing and forming things out of them but brings them into their true use and service It takes the Scriptures out of mans hand who hath slain the life by them and puts them into the hands of the spirit who makes the words again pure and quick and living purging away mans defiled and dead conceivings and interpretations of them A man must know the Spirit come to the spirit be joyned to and be in union with the Spirit before he can have the true understanding of the Scriptures The Scriptures of truth are the words of God or various expressions of his mind which he that searcheth into afore he hath his spirit cannot know and so man in this state can onely guess and imagine at things but cannot see the truth And from hence it is that so many sects and heaps are sprung up in the world according to the variety of their imaginations One sort of men cry this is the way this is the truth this is the Church this is the worship Another sort cry that is not it that is superstition and error but this is it and so a third and fourth c. So about Scriptures one saith this is the meaning another saith it is not so but this is the meaning The Papists say the Church must judge of the meaning of Scriptures and the Protestants who take more scope how do they doubt and differ and oppose one another about the interpretation of Scriptures which plainly showes that they do not plow with the right heifer for then there would be unity and certainty They let their own reasonings and imaginations loose and there is no foundation of certainty but had they waited for the Spirit to begin with and gone on no farther then he opened to them all these doubts and dissentions would have been choked in the birth or womb or not have come so far as either birth or womb Yet do I not altogether deny the reading of Scriptures even in this state if men read with fear and trembling not setting up his own understanding or the understanding of any man else but waiting for the spirit which can alone give him an understanding to receive the true knowledg But this I dare boldly affirm that mens reading of the Scriptures in their own wisdom and self-confidence or confidence of what interpretation others have given doth them no good at all
but much harm tending to the building up of that which God will again destroy But he that begins with the spirit of God giving himself up to that light which comes from him comes to true union with God and to the feeling of his life and so to a true growth and knowledg of the spirit of God whereby he comes to know and understand the Scriptures which came from the same spirit and hereby also he comes to be able to measure the deceit of his own Spirit which formerly led him aside and also to see and measure the spirits of deceivers But he that is in the deceit in the imagination out of the true knowledg he cannot know the deceit of his own spirit or the spirits of deceivers but cals the truth deceit and the deceit truth Object 4. That this light teaches things contrary to the Scriptures Answ That light which comes from the same spirit which the Scriptures came from cannot teach things contrary to the Scriptures But man who hath took the tools of his understanding and formed images and likenesses out of the Scriptures I mean invented meanings and senses and judged these agreeable to the Scriptures he must needs judge that which is contrary to these as contrary to the Scriptures whereas the truth is one in it self and agreeth with whatsoever is true in this age or in former ages and differs onely from that which is not true And we know that there is that true unity with that spirit from which the Scriptures came and with the Scriptures and with one another in that light which the wisdom of man cannot but despise as hath not been in any age since the Apostacy til now Object 5. That this sets up free-wil When persons are exhorted to embrace the light to let in the light and told that condemnation comes for not believing or receiving the light then they cry out can man believe can man receive the light hath man free-wil The wil of man is bound but there is liberty power and freedom in the light which visits man and comes to unbind and save him And man feels this power tasts of this liberty feels somewhat disengaging him from the evil and drawing him from it but he being in love with the evil draws back from the drawing shutting his ears against the wisdom of the light and opening his ears to the reasonings of the Serpent and then the liberty and power which was in the light withdraws with the light and the bonds are strengthned upon him And this is the condemnation not that there was a want of power from God but that he chose the power of the enemy not loving the light wherein the power of life lay God knows the state of man in the fall and knows the strength of the enemy and the Saviour that he sends hath sufficient power against him and the light that the Saviour sends is stronger then the darkness and can overcome the darkness and cannot be overcome by the darkness And if thou joyn with the darkness and wilt not yeeld to the drawings of the father but yeeld up thy self to the drawings and reasonings of the darkness yet the strength of the light remains in it self and though for the present thou hast struck it down and slain it yet it will rise up a strong and living witness against thee and the darkness to which thou hast joyned When a man goes from the light he goes into the wil voluntarily then take and choose in the flesh When a man follows the light the will of the flesh dyeth in him another wil riseth up and chooseth for him there is the true liberty But as for your speaking of free-wil ye do not know what ye speak of for the will with the freedom of it either stands in the image and power of him that made it or in a contrary image and power While it is in the image and power of him that made it it is free unto good and not to evil while it is in the image and power of him who corrupted it it is free unto evil and not to good The wil is not of it self but stands in another and is servant to that in whom it stands and there its freedom is bounded and comprehended For there is no middle state between both wherein the wil stands of it self and is free to both equally but it is a servant and under the command of one of these powers If it be under the command of sin of the power of darkness it is free from righteousness and if it be under the command and power of righteousness it is free from sin but such a free will as men commonly speak of is a meer imagination and hath no foundation in the true state of things And this may answer another objection which lies as a great block in the way of many who feel a conviction but are withheld from obedience under a pretence of wanting power whereas the power lies in that light which convinceth and is received in the obedience and in the cross As the power of the enemy crept in in hearkning to him So the power of truth is received in hearkning to and receiving the reproofs of truth That which checks the evil that which stands against the minde smiting it in its course of vanity and pleasure in the fallen state in that is the power That comes from the power goes forth in the power and the power is in it and cannot be severed from it So he that lets that in le ts in the power and he that shuts that out shuts out the power And in this state a man may complain all his dayes for want of power and not meet with it for how can he when he refuses it in the way wherein the power seeks him and waits for it in a way wherein it is not to be found The appearance of the power at first is smal and contemptible to the eye of the fleshly wisdom and it is not received in any such great overpowring way though that also is known afterward as man is apt to expect but all lies in one little seed where the day of smal things is known The light the life the power the purity the wisdom c. lies hid there and in receiving that little thing all is received and in the groweth of that all grows up But by being tempted by the enemy to neglect this and wait for some great power and appearance of God the soul is held in the bonds of iniquity and kept from the life as strongly as by the grossest form Object 6. That this sets up a covenant of works for a man is bid to do bid to obey the light and when he does when he obeys he has peace and when he obeys not he has not peace Answ This sets not up the works of the Law but it leads through the works of the Law to the righteousness of faith When the commandement came sin revived
gown up to age and able to defend his portion from his elder Brother who otherwise would be ready to seize on it and waste it upon harlots again Therefore lie stil and bear the indignation of the Lord against that which hath transgressed til he judg it and deliver from it and lead into the innocency and righteousness and then he wil find a time to arise and plead the cause of the innocent and give the crown of immortal life to that which he hath prepared for it Therefore think not the race long nor the battel hard nor be weary of the afflictions and chastisements in the way but follow the Captain the guid the leader whose light strength courage and wisdom wil overcome all and bring the soul which abides in it into his own throne Now as you thus wait taking up the Cross and keeping in the feeling so the corrupt natural the mortal wherein Satans throne and power hath been wil wither decay and grow weak daily and the tender plant of God the immortal seed will shoot up and gather strength daily and you will come to a will in God and an understanding in God and that which is of God wil manifest it self and you wil come to know and desire and take delight in the things of God Then the soul which is immortal wil come to hear and receive and feed on the immortal word which is the bread of life and which alone is able to preserve and nourish up to eternal life Then ye wil know what it is to tremble at this word and to have all the powers of nature melt and fail before it Then ye will know the faith which gives the victory and the knowledg which lets into life and the fear which keeps the hearts clean and the hope which anchors the soul immortal in the immortal God and the patience which wins the Crown And so ye wil come to witness the several conditions of the Saints in Scripture at ye grow up into them wil not need men to give you meanings of Scriptures from their brain-studies and acquired arts and understandings but wil know the meaning from the thing felt in your own hearts and hear the words from the living voice of that spirit that first spake them who alone is able to interpret his own mind and open the words which he himself spake And then ye wil know and love life and need no more exhortations to depart from all dead corrupted and corrupting forms which ever were and ever wil be enemies to and be traytors of the life And to the peace of God the rest of God the true Sabbath of God the everlasting light and life of God wil come to be your own and enjoyed by you past all gain-saying or dispute in you while the natural understanding in others is reasoning contending and disputing about them but can never know while they are from the thing within for that mind is not the heir nor must not inherit the kingdom of God A Postscript TO those who have had a seriousness and depth in their Religion who could not sit down in empty forms and shadows of things but have been pressing after the living substance and missing of that through error of judgment the true eye being not fixed in the head have come to a loss and so are returned to overgrown with and hardned in the old nature and have taken up a pittiful rest and centre in the earth having let fal the pursuit of their spirits after the true center of rest in the life a word to such from the love in the life There was a spirit soul or image of God brought forth and standing in his life before the fall This soul was brought into death under the burthen and bondage of corruption out of its proper centre and resting place by the fal Now as there is in this state a true loss so there is in this spirit a sensibleness a groaning under the burthen a feeling the bitterness of the captivity and a panting after redemption and restoration to its former state Now though the whorish part which seduced from the life make a great noise in the flesh about Saints words and tempt to pleasures of the outward part and pleasures in the mind and draw into forms and religious worships and frame deep centres of satisfaction in the understanding perhaps from true openings of the life quenching it and so seek to quiet the soul and stil the cry yet the lost state remaining the soul being not truely redeemed but a false rest taken up by the way in the false part this wil fail and the sense be again renewed in the day of tryal and sore trouble For the soul by any imagination or notion or feeling of a centre in the corrupt mind cannot be healed or restored but onely by having the true life raised up again in it and it brought into its proper place and mansion in the fountain of life There have been in the shakings of this Nation great stirrings the seed springing up and great openings to the seed the spirit of prophesy hath been enlarged in us above what many of our fore-fathers felt but the way into the spring of life hath not been known where the preservation is so the whorish part the corrupt part the understanding which was not purified brought into subjection unto the truth this harlot caught the openings and prophestes of the true spirit conceived with them and brought forth children to the flesh bringing for a more inward apprehension of things a more spiritual kind of knowledg as of God to be all all to be good and in God and all sin and evil done away there c. and so such a centre for the fleshly mind as it were in him as was not known before And now the redemption is forgotten the pantings after life slain and the flesh can lie down quiet in the un-redeemed estate and say it is his wil it is good and it can rest satisfied there in that wil of his which is good Thus the great abomination from the subtle flesh sprung up which made many hearts desolate of very precious springings up and buddings forth of the true life and power of God But after this great loss and betraying of the life in them it hath pleased God to raise it up in others and to discover the hammer the sword the fire which can knock down cut down burn up this whorish part and thither the whore is brought when she comes to betray again and the springings up of life shrink back and lie safe in the centre while the whore is burning And as the whore is burnt the heir comes up and the Spirit which is the portion of his inheritance descends and rests upon him and by this he is known and that which is in union with him knows him Therefore if you will live come to that hammer that sword that fire which flesh dreads and let the flesh
be delivered up to it and do not despise the day of smal things waiting for some great appearance but know it in its lowest knock for its power of redemption is as truly there as in its greatest appearance He that hath an ear let him hear and his soul shal live Let those therefore whom this concerns consider their waies as the grace that appeared to me hath taught me to do and try their foundation upon what they stand and that they do not kill what is opened and live in the slain openings and so in the end become dark airy dry withered wheeling about and turning into the earth it becoming their rest and foundation again and so loosing the joyes which formerly the opener did open This with me many of you may witness for whom my desire is that they may also witness the return to that which then opened and live in the opener and be preserved by him from abusing his precious openings any more For though I had a true taste of life and power from God yet not knowing the foundation there could be no true building with it and so the spirit was quenched the life wasted the portion spent upon harlots the true bread lost and chaff and husks fed upon without the least satisfaction to the soul the sense whereof when the spirit of the Lord awakened me did almost over-whelm me Yea the bands of death were so strengthned upon me and the spirit of the word had taken such hold of me that I found my return very difficult yea when living words of hope were mentioned to me to draw me back to that principle of life from which I had gone out I could receive nothing but cry out impossible impossible impossible I felt my self like a tree twice dead plucked up by the roots without the capacity of life sence or motion in the eternal being any more But at length it pleased life to move in a low way in the midst of the powers of darkness in my heart and by sinking low out of the wisdom out of the reason out of all high imaginations and trusting my self to it though dreadful stroaks and oppositions were felt from the powers of darkness yet at length there was some appearance of the deliverer in such a poor low weak despicable way as could never have been welcomed had not the soul been first brought to distress and the loftiness of the imaginary part brought down And then coming out of that into the feeling in another part there was a seed sprung up into a child and as that child grows and feeds on the milk of the immortal word I live am strengthened in him and daily weakned in that part which lived before These are true words from an honest heart for the relief of those who may have been entangled in the same snare Here follows the Testimony Concerning the Estate of the True Church what she hath been and what she is and it was given forth as being the motion of the Spirit of the Father and left with me and is Judged sutable and servicable to be here inserted and it may be for the edification of many COncerning the True State of the Church what she hath been and what she is at this day and concerning her increase and decrease thorough ages and generations past and her present State is this returning again out of the Wilderness where she hath long been fed having a place prepared of God Now the Apostle saw her a woman clothed with the Sun covered with the light of Heaven and with the glory of God having the Moon under her feet the light which was ordained to rule the night Thus she was and this was her state in the dayes of the Apostles when many were converted out of darknesse and renewed to be members of this Church for her glory shone through the World and she flourished through Nations and this was her Estate in the Apostles dayes and she travelled to bring forth the man-child Christ Jesus which is the child and husband of this woman which was clothed with the brightness of the glory of God the elected spouse of Christ the Lambs wife and his body of his flesh and of his bones having power and dominion and treading under all contrary And thus was it with her in generations past whose seed spring forth as branches fruitful and glorious But in process of time it came to pass that this woman the spouse of Christ his body the wife and mother of thiâ— man-child she was bereaved of her beauty and her garments were taken away her seed was made war against and was smitten and overcome and she fled into the wilderness and there hath sat desolate as a widow lamenting the losse of her children and being deprived of her husband and the man child which should have ruled the Nations for she hath been fled into the Wilderness and her former beauty hath not appeared to be and her former glory hath seemed to be gone and she hath been driven away from her head from her husband and from her seed Behold all people the Estate of such a woman and read this parable who can a woman most glorious and fair having her husband ruler of the whole earth and having an heir born to rule over heaven and earth being covered with the light of heaven and of the everlasting day and having the light of the night under her feet yet hath this woman been deprived of her glory and sate desolate in the Wilderness a mournfull place seperated from her husband and made childless and without seed and what ey that sees this a right but must mourn and what heart that truly perceives it but must lament a woman so great and so glorious and so fruitful as to bring forth the heir of heaven and earth yet hath she been left as a mourner as without husband and without issue for many generations This hath been her estate and condition for ages since the dayes of the Apostle which John saw in a vision would shortly come to pass after him and we see it hath been come to pass within this sixteen hundred years and this hath been the estate of the true Church for many ages a woman childless whose heir hath been taken from her and whose seed hath been made war against and killed for many generations But her time was decreed and she should but be thus for so many dayes and now are the dayes expired and she again shall receive her heir that hath been caught up from her and her seed shall spring forth and her slain shall live and her beauty shall be given her and her first glory shall be increased and she shall feed no longer in the mourning Wilderness but she shall be fed upon the Mountain of Gods house which is to be established upon the top of all mountains and her seed shall spring forth numberless and her heir shall rule with an iron rod and her marriage day is
betrayed and held captive by the whorish spirit that sits ruler in judgment I do not speak of all people of all sects that they have zeal and simplicity but of some people in all sects and through all these false Churches and so the spirit which has guided the judgment that has abased the zeal and abused the sincerity and betrayed it so people have been a running running after the form and blind in judgement and lost sincerity and simplicity that has been betrayed in them though sometime appearing and stirring and so the wrong part in people has fed upon the form and appearance and the seed starved and the sincerity eaten out and so one sect hath made this the rule of their judgment and another sect another thing the rule of their judgment one cries tradition another Scriptures another cries the practice of Saints before us none of all have been guided in judgment by the spirit of the Lord and where the spirit of the Lord is not the onely rule of judgment guiding the judgment in all things that people and that man are in error and the sincerity in them hath not its free course but bound under with a spirit which is bondage and leads into bondage and when people comes to be turned to the light of Christ in them and receive a measure of the Spirit of the Lord to guide the judgment then the sincerity and simplicity and zeal wil grow and thrive and be increased but til then the good is eaten out that lies under and is oppressed and ever and alwaies the desire quenched the sincerity lost the simplicity betrayed by the spirit of whoredom which rules the judgment and these things are manifest in our age therefore all people come out of your sects and false Churches for the woman is returned and returning out of the wilderness and the seed shal spring forth as in the dayes of old E. B. A Testimony of great concernment to all that call themselves Christians but have not known the true Church of which alone the true Christian can be born THere hath been a great War between the woman and her seed and the harlot and her seed from the beginning to this day and they have each had their prevailings in the war The woman and her seed have been made strong in God to conquer some of the territories of death and to set up their life in the world Thus in the Jewish state God prepared an heaven and an earth for the woman and her seed and when that heaven and earth was shaken he prepared a more glorious heaven and earth in the Christian state Now no sooner was the Church and her seed seated in either of these but the Dragon made made war against her and in the war had power given him to recover her seat from her Thus the Devil gat possession of the Jewish state so that there was no room for the true Church there but all was in idolatry and corruption and the Lord was not served by their ceremonies by their sacrifices by their Sabbaths by their new moons by their Temple-worship c. but the Devil And the Devil also got possession of the heaven and earth in the Christian state so that in their Ordinances in their worships in their duties in that which they call their Churches God hath not been worshipped in truth but the Devil for this many ages For mark who was it that got into the Temple of God was it not Antichrist was it not the Spirit of Satan 2 Thes 2. 4. And who was it that was worshipped in all the world that had power given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations and whom all that dwel upon the earth worship was it not the Dragon Rev. 13. 7 8. Did not all the world wonder after the beast and worship the Dragon which gave power unto the beast ver 3. 4. of that Chap. The woman was assaulted here her strong holds taken from her so that she could not stay safe in that heaven and earth which God had made for her therefore there was another place prepared for her by God in the wilderness and she had wings of an Eagle given her to fly thither but the Dragon got into and held possession of that heaven where she was before Rev. 12. So that none hath known the Church all this time but he that hath been born of her in the wilderness which was a place the world never dreamed of but looked for her in the heaven and the earth which the Devil had got possession of And here they cry up the Ordidinances the Ordinances duties the Church the Ministry c. as the Jews did the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord not knowing in whose hands these were and whom they worshipped hereby Now consider this O ye Christians I speak what I assuredly know that God could not be truly worshipped in any of these while they were in the Devils hands but the whorish Spirit and her seed worship here and the worship of the Church and her seed was a wildernessworship or a worship which she learned of God in the wilderness Mark now and consider my testimony O ye Christians I deny all the worship all the Ordinances which were taught the Christians of old now practised by the whorish spirit for the Devil had gained it and corrupted it and having corrupted it God could not be any more worshipped in it but the Antichristian spirit sate there giving forth those things as his Laws He sate in the Temple of God and there made use of the Vessels and Ordinances which he had carried captive into his Babylon and I deny it to be possible to have any true use of these til the time of the recovery And now the time of the recovery is come and the restitution begun people know it not but cry up the old heaven and the old earth which Satan had corrupted setting it up in opposition against the new which God hath new formed and is bringing forth in true beauty and glory Now in this war though the Devil though the harlot and her seed gat the womans seat from her and banished her seed as it were out of the earth yet they were not able to touch the woman nor to over-come the life of God in her seed but onely to kil their bodies but the life was stil conqueror over them and not subjected to them They could raise up Churches and Ordinances and Ministers and duties and cause all that dwel on the earth to worship in some part or other of this Babylon but they could never make the seed bow to any of their images nor could they hurt the woman hereby who was in the wilderness out of the reach of all these And there she did eat the bread of life with tears mourning over her desolate estate and her loss of children And here alone was the true bread of life which was not to be known or
he that believes hath the witness in himself and he that believes sets to his seale that God is true who hath sent his Son to inlighten him him by whom the World was made in whom was life and his life was the light of men and this is it which shines in darkness and the darkness cannot comprehend it And there is the state of all confusion and Sects and opinions upon the earth the darkness professing Christs the Prophets the Apostles Davids Abrahams and the Saints words and yet the darkness cannot comprehend the light which Christ hath inlightned them withall so the darkness is not in unity with Abrahams Davids Christs and the Apostles words but be all on heaps about them Therefore as light shines out of darkness shining in the heart giving the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ the end of the Prophets Abrahams Moses Davids and the Apostles words Christ Jesus is known in whom is the unity and reconciliation and no darkness at all but unity with God and with his Prophets words and his Apostles and servants before Abraham was in this unity all come into life and light to the spirits of just men made perfect And to you this is the word of the Lord God and to your age and generation the cause of all deceit and strife upon the earth is because men have been in transgression Heathens Jews and Gentiles from Christ the light under the devils power out of truth the cause of all Christians being on heaps one with another and their bad conversation that the heathen cries shame of them hath been because they have been out of the light which they have professed in which they should have served God and had unity with Scriptures and one with another and with God and with that answer the principle of God in all upon the the earth and not by serving Jdols because of the vanities of their minds and unconverted state so all upon the earth that sets up likenesses and Jmages are under vanities because of the corruption of their own minds and the vanity of them But the day of restauration is come into Christ the light and covenant of God and all upon the earth that sets up Jmages and Jdols liknesses and serves dead works and hath a dead faith and not the faith of Abraham the faith of the elect that gives every one to see Christ and have accesse to God and such need not to have any dead thing to put them in minde of him so all that set up such things whatsoever likenesses and Jmages doth the light which Christ hath inlightned them withall bring them off from into light and covenant with God loving it unto salvation and to see it and to covenant with God there is every ones teacher loving it there is every ones condemnation hating it and they there with the light that every one is inlightned withall shall come to see the Prophet raised up and there none shall be cut of that do hear this Prophet and there every one shall have his reward according to his works from the Son who hath inlightned them who is come to judge the World in righteousness who is now set down upon his Throne So all Nations are called are commanded to come in and to hear the Son of God and learn of the Son of God hear the beloved Son of God and cease from all them that are made of men and by men that they may come to hear the Son of God themselves and receive the Son of God and receiving him they receive life by whom the World was made coming into the light that he is enlightned withall then every one may freely declare what he sees and hears and handels and every one sees him by whom the World was made who is the light and life and resurrection and wisdom and sanctification and justification from all things in which light the covenant of God you have peace with God that you may see him to the beginning G. F. An addition concerning the doctrine of Justification BEcause the doctrine of Justification is of great concernment and the enemy of mankind hath exceedingly endeavoured to corrupt it and in the Apostacy hath greatly prevailed and the darkness which springs up in the fleshly wisdom is exceeding thick at the day concerning this thing therefore in true love to souls it is laid upon me to search into the Scriptures which chiefly speaks thereof and from thence to clear it up to such who are not yet come to the life that gave forth the Scriptures The Apostle Paul doth largely and fully treat of it in his Epistle to the Romans and lays down several things concerning it which if wel heeded may dash mens present apprehensions about it and bring them to wait for the opening of those Scriptures to them in another light then you have yet known 1. He affirms that Justification is not by the deeds of the Law Ro. 3. 20. If a man could say with the young man All these things have I done from my youth or as Paul that he was as touching the Law blameless yet could he not be justified thereby And the Apostle gives a mighty reason for by the law is the knowledg of sin Now Justification is not by the making of sinne known but by that which saves and delivers from it The knowledg of sin may put a man upon seeking out for justification but it cannot justifie him but rather condemn him but that which delivers him from the sin which the law makes known that justifies him 2. He affirms that the righteousness of God which is the justification is manifested without the law v. 21. The Law makes sin known and shews the sinner the need of justification but the justification it self is not thereby but is manifested without it The Law commands the nature to act that pertains to similitudes figures and types and shadows to the obedience of them but the seed takes away the nature that pertains to similitudes and shadows and the works of the law so to the obedience of those things the law commands there is justification by the law in the obedience to the works it commands but the justification Christ removes the nature that pertains to those things the law commands so that justification the law ends in Christ 3. That this righteousness or justification is witnessed by the law and the Prophets v. 21. The law though it is not the justification nor can the justification be by obedience to it or by the deeds of it yet it gives testimony to the justification for the substance of what the law and all the Prophets witness is that nothing can justifie but the righteousness of God 4. That this righteousness or justification is by the faith of Christ v. 22. by believing or entring into that which justifies As condemnation was by unbelier by joyning unto and entring into the spirit of enmity so justification is by joyning
unto entring into the spirit of love by true union with Christ in the spirit which union is by the faith which comes from Christ 5. That this justification or righteousness is upon all that believe v. 22. He that receiveth the faith believeth and he that believeth hath the righteousness and he that believeth not cannot have the righteousness but the condemnation wrath abideth on him 6. That this justification is freely by the grace v. 24. There is no way to come to this righteousness but by the gift of grace which gift is given freely Therefore if ever man wil be justified he must know the grace and the gift which comes from the grace and receive it receiving it he cannot miss of justification and not receiving it but either being ignorant of it or resisting of it he cannot possibly be justified 7. That this justification is by the redemption in Christ v. 24. Christ is redeemer the redemption wherein is the justification is in him and there is no way of meeting with the justification or redemption but by receiving of him in whom it is and he who hath him hath the justification and is made partaker of the redemption and he who hath not him hath it not Mark then the justification or redemption is not by believing of a thing done without man though that also is to be believed but by receiving of him into the heart For the virtue of all Christ did without is within him I cannot be made partaker by believing that he did such a thing without or that he did it for me but by receiving the virtue of it into me and feeling the virtue of it in me This is that which saves me and makes that which was done without to be mine 8. That Christ is the propitiation v. 25. or that which pacifies and makes way for sinners to God so that he that truly receiveth Christ hath the atonement but he that hath not received him only dreameth of peace with God but stil remaineth in the enmity and is liable to the wrath having the bond of iniquity over him and is in the night 9. That this Propitiation is by faith in the blood v. 25. There is nothing pacifies God but the blood of his Son and thre is nothing feels the blood but the faith and that which is in the faith A man may read Scriptures and gather notions about justification and think he believes a right and shal be justified but he never comes to feel the blood nor the life which is in the blood till he receive the faith and then he knoweth the true propitiation and the true peace which before he did but talk of 10. That this faith is the righteousness Faith is the gift of God and this gift justifies this gift is the justification this is that which God imputeth for righteousness ch 4 v. 3. 5. The faith is in the blood and the blood is in the Son and in the true receiving of the Son both the faith and the blood are known and felt These are true words though hard to the fleshly ear do not stumble in the wisdom but calmly wait for the revelation of the spirit and then thou wilt say the price of this knowledg is not to be valued if once thou come to tast truth here all thy knowledg in the letter wil be but dross with thee Ye are come to the blood of sprinkling O do not rest in an outward way of believing an outward thing but seek out the way of coming to the blood of sprinkling 11. That the justification is of the ungodly v. 5. He whom God maketh righteous was ungodly before he made him righteous There was nothing but unrighteousness could be imputed to him in transgression before he gave him his Son and made him righteous in his Son for nothing is righteous with God but Christ and man only as he taken into his righteousnes which is done not by a believing from the bare leter but by a receiving of faith in the life 12. That the justification of the ungodly is by believing in him that justifieth v. 5. The gift of faith goes forth from him is received into the heart now both by the gift it self and by the exercise of it is the justification by receiving of the gift is the person justified by the exercise of the gift are all his actions justified Christ being let in to the heart justifies the heart into which he is received and Christ being in the heart justifies every motion and action that comes from his life and any other motion or action is not justified for it is out of that which is justified and is in and from that which is condemned Abraham believed God and it was counted anto him for righteousness v. â— God promised him a seed he believed God God bid him sacrifice this type he believed This was it was imputed to him for righteousness Now if he had not believed if he had not received the gift or not exercised the gift could he have been righteous so that Abraham was not justified by any work he did or could do but by receiving and exercising the faith in the seed by going out of his country kindred and fathers house not of himself but by faith and by living to God and obeying his voice in that land to which he was led not in his own wil or power but in the faith And by hearing the call of God and receiving the faith and living out of self out of a mans own understanding wil and power in the faith and living power and wisdom of God is the justification now and they that do thus are the children of Abraham born of the free woman when as they that take up practises from the letter without being ingraffed into the life are but children of the bond woman but such children of Abraham as the Jews were if so much and can not inherit that promise which belongs to the spiritual seed while they live in that state 13. That wher the faith which is imputed unto righteousness is found there sin is not imputed but covered which is a blessed state v. 6 7 8. Sin cuts off from God who is life blessedness sin laies open to the wrath of the creator which is too great for the creator to bear woe and misery wil be his portion to whom God imputes sin But happy is he who has his sin covered this is an happy condition life and immortality will soon be opened to him Now this blessedness cometh not by the works of the law for they cannot remove the sin but by the righteousness of faith which is able to cover the sin even from the pure ey of God O Christians christians do not imagine your selves covered from sin but know it feel it never rest till ye are so made partakers of the true righteousness that by its virtue in you ye may be past all doubt that it is it
Believing from the letter without you that ye are justified may easily deceive you but if once ye come truly to feel in your selves the thing which justifies and so find the power and life of it in you above the power of all that which condemns casting out the condemned thing and the condemner with all his works out of your hearts this cannot deceive The virtue of life was lost in the Apostacy and that which was living did not so much enjoy life as mourn after it and the power and safety of life did then appear most in mourning but now the Apostacy draws towards an end and the virtue begins to shoot up again and he that wil be a Christian now must be so not by retaining his old notions but by feeling this new virtue and by growing up in this new-sprung life and power of the Lord whose appearance is new to us who have not been acquainted with it but have been brought up in the darkness of the apostacy and lived in the waters where great Leviathan ruled and who was able to make war with him there But he that seeketh is joyned with and keepeth to that power which drieth up the waters and putteth an hook into the nostrils of the Leviathan shall find the world with the whole course of it ending in himself and the beginning and growth of an endless life and in whom that life lives they shall live also but wher death keeps the power of life down such shal not live or know the blessing but abide under the curse of misery and death and under the powers of darkness Therefore look about you and make a wise choice for his servants ye are whom ye obey whether the Prince of darkness in his invented forms of godliness or the Prince of light it the living power and your reward shall be according to your choice and work either death in the death if ye chuse and joyn to that or life in the life if ye joyn to that He that hath an ear to hear let him hear J. P. A Table of the Contents AN Apostacy from the truth fore-told of Page 1 That this Apostacy began in the dayes of the Apostles p. 4 The poyson of it infecting the Churches then p. 5 The general overspreading of the Apostacy over the whole earth p. 7 Witnesses raised up against the Apostates but still persecuted and slain by the Apostates in all ages since the Apostacy p. 8 Where the true Religion and Church hath been to be sought for all the time of the Apostacy 9 The general corrupting of the Doctrine of the Gospel and of the whole state of Christianity by the Apostacy 10 The rule of Christianity lost in the Apostacy 10 An objection concerning the rule answered 13 The true rule which was before the Apostacy infallible 16 A dishonor put upon the Scriptures under pretence of honour 17 The Scriptures honor to be again recovered 18 The true worship lost in the Apostacy 18 The true faith lost in the Apostacy 21 The true unfeigned love lost in the Apostacy and a feigned love got up since among professors of all sorts 22 The true hope lost in the Apostacy 23 The true joy lost in the Apostacy 24 The true peace lost in the Apostacy 24 The true repentance lost in the Apostacy 24 The true conversion lost in the Apostacy 25 The true regeneration lost in the apostacy 25 The true wisdom lost in the Apostacy 25 The true righeousness or justification lost in the Apostacy 26 The true sanctification lost in the Apostacy 27 The true redemption lost in the Apostacy 27 The difference between Christians before the apostacy and Christians since in the very substance of Christianity 28 The true Church lost in the Apostacy 29 The true Ministry lost in the Apostacy 30 Witnesses raised up in all Nations to testifie against the Apostacy and some sparks of truth such as God saw fit for them to testifie to the present age revived in them 32 As the whorish spirit changed her dresses to keep up her deceit and to with-hold the honest hearted from the truth so witnesses still raised up against her to discover her and witnesse against her in all her new forms and shapes 33 Affliction and persecution good for the witnesses to keep down the flesh and keep the life pure in its weak appearance in them in the time of the Apostacy 33 The tender kindness of God to the simple and honest hearted in the time of the Apostacy 34 The ill use that the carnal mind now makes of it 34 The Ministry of the apostacy wrong in its nature and whole course feeding the fleshly part but not able to raise up and feed the soul 34 Of a recovery from the Apostacy the Lamb and the Saints again ruling 35 The preaching of the Gospel again in the world 36 The fall of inventions traditions and false worship with that whorish spirit which invented them and bewitched all Nations with them 36 Plagues to come upon them that abide in any part of Babylon 37 Who are still in some part or other of the apostacy and not recovered from it 37 What the spirit that ruleth in the apostacy raiseth up in men and what it suppresseth 38 How this Spirit intangled the simple hearted and held them in her snares even when there were pure stirrings of life to get loose from her 39 What the worship of men is in the apostacy and whom they worship 40 The onely way of recovery out of the apostacy 43 The enmity of this Nation against that Spirit which would recover it out of the apostacy 44 The danger of this enmity to the Nation 45 Salvation onely by the true knowledge of Christ 46 By the new covenant 46 The Laws whereof are to be written in the heart 47 Which can be done by none but the Spirit 48 Therefore the first thing to be known in Religion is the Spirit 48 The Spirit is first known as a convincer of sin 49 He convinceth by his light in the conscience 50 The light of conviction shineth in every conscience 50 Believing in this light is the true way to life 51 Believing in this light unites to God and opens the springs of life 52 How we came to the knowledg of the way to life 53 The true Heirs comfidence in God against all the powers of flesh 53 The springing up of the seed of God in this Nation with the great opposition against it 54 The spirit of error chargeth truth with those things which belong to it self 55 Truth would take away the error with that from whence it springs and wherein it lodges but that it is opposed and withstood at the very first even when it doth but begin to discover 57 Object That this is a new way answered 58 Obj. That this light is natural answered 59 Obj. That it makes the Scriptures void answered 59 Obj. That it teaches things contrary to the Scripture answered 61 Obj. That it sets up free-will answered 61 Obj. About wanting power answered 63 Obj. That this sets up a covenant of works answered 63 Obj. That it breaks down relations laws governments takes away due respect from Magistrates c. answered 65 A false healing of a true wound is the cause of error from the Spirit of life in ones self and of persecuting it in others 67 The wisdom which hath been gathering knowledg from the Scriptures in the apostacy must fall and all that knowledge come to naught before the truth can be received 68 Gods love in discovering the Apostacy and calling from it and